Instead of blogging throughout SXSW Interactive (there were plenty of bloggers there) I decided to wait until after the conference and pull together a few highlights from my notes. I'm still working on that, but until then I have a few quick comments about the conference.
First of all, it was fantastic. It really was one of the better conferences I've been to in a long time (and I'm glad that was the case, since this was the first tech conference I've paid for completely out of my own pocket -- I even had to take vacation time to attend!) The last SXSWi I attended was during the down-fall of the dot-com economy, so the conference wasn't exactly ripe with enthusiasm; However, the recent spike in entrepreneurialism and innovation happening on the web was certainly fueling the excitement this year. The conference was practically over-booked with friendly people.
My second comment is more of a general conference-going tip: For whatever reason, presentations and panels rarely end up being about the topic listed in the schedules. Because of this, you want to pick sessions based on: (1) Whether you have an opportunity to learn something new (ie., it's a topic that's at least somewhat new to you); and (2) The actual people presenting, rather then the topic. For example, even if you weren't interested in Darknets, "The Future of Darknets" panel included Ian Clarke (of the Freenet Project) and Kori Bernards (VP Corp Comm for the MPAA)! You knew that was going to be a heated discussion. And the "Interview with Henry Rollins" -- no way was I going to miss that!
In the end, I think part of what made the conference so enjoyable was the opportunity to go to panels and sessions that weren't just mobile-specific. If my attendance had been company-paid, I would have been in all (instead of some) of the mobile panels, and I'd be spending my evenings writing up trip reports instead of out having drinks with other conference goers. Call it a mixed-blessing... but I'm looking forward to next years' conference already!